Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Designers Toolkit or The Non Designers Design and Type Books

The Designer's Toolkit: 500 Grids and Style Sheets

Author: Graham Davis

Good graphic design relies on a simple, fundamental concept: the grid. With the invisible, unifying structure they provide, grids bring consistency and visual harmony to multi-page or multi-screen documents. The Designer's Toolkit is the first book to streamline the use of this critical tool, providing a fast-track way for both experienced and amateur designers to identify and employ the best grid for the job. A CD embedded in the book's cover includes 500 ready-to-use grid templates formatted for the most commonly used design programs. The templates can be used as-is or be easily customized to create professional-quality work. This unique book-plus-CD package provides the foundation for anyone to create effective, original, and sophisticated design.

The Non-Designer's Design and Type Books: Deluxe Edition

Author: Robin Williams

This book features Robin Williams' best design and type techniques packaged into one affordable volume. The design portion of the book is now in full-color and features a new chapter on using color. The enormously popular Non-Designer's series defines the principles that govern type and design as well as the logic behind them so that readers learn not just what looks best but why on their way to creating sophisticated, effective print and Web pages. Even readers who are completely new to the worlds of design and type will soon be working wonders as Robin reveals the secrets to making design and type readable and artistic. The book covers explores different type secrets and techniques, including understanding legibility and readability; tailoring typeface to a particular project; mastering pull quotes and captions; working with spacing, punctuation marks, special characters, fonts, and justification. It also covers how to produce more sophisticated, professional, and interesting pages immediately.

Written in the lively, engaging style that has made Robin one of the most popular computer book authors, this inspiring guide uses numerous examples to illustrate the subtle details that make the difference between good and great design. The nonplatform- and nonsoftware-specific approach makes this a must-have for any designer's bookshelf.